As per your update install.packages(…,dependencies=T) fixes it. I’d also suggest finding a convenient CRAN mirror and hardwiring its URL as repos=[URL], which eliminates the tiresome mirror menu.

R is, for better or worse, written in a very particular way. It makes a great deal of sense after a couple of years (or is that resignation?) but until then is infuriating. The thing that continuously surprises me is how useful it is – there are always interesting new stats and plots to look at data in ways I hadn’t even conceived of before.